In recent years, displays of image display devices including television receivers are shifting from conventional cathode-ray tube displays to thin-screen displays including liquid crystal panels and plasma display panels. With the thin-screen displays, thin image display devices can be provided. A liquid crystal display device requires a backlight unit as a separate lighting device because a liquid crystal panel used therein is not a light-emitting component.
The liquid crystal display device is needed to reduce in thickness and increase in size. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses such a liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device includes an LED and a light guide plate. The LED emits light along a direction that is substantially parallel to a display surface of a liquid crystal panel. The light guide plate includes a light entrance surface and a light output surface. The light entrance surface is provided at the side edge of the light guide plate so as to be opposed to the LED and light emitted from the LED enters the light entrance surface. The light output surface is provided on a front surface of the light guide plate and the light outputs from the light output surface toward the display surface of the liquid crystal panel. A plurality sets of the light guide plate and the LED are arranged along an arrangement direction in which the light guide plate and the LED are arranged. In one set of the light guide plate and the LED, a distal end of the light guide plate that is far from the LED is arranged to be overlapped with the front-surface side of the light guide plate included in the adjacent set of the light guide plate and the LED.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-93321